Pano: new app offers students a way to stay connected

Have you ever sat in your room on a Friday night with no plans and no idea what events could be going on in the ETSU community?

The launch of the new app, Pano: Campus Life, was created to help fix that problem.

Pano is a new app that allows all ETSU students to log in using their Goldlink username and password and post information for events such as club meetings, hiking trips, sporting events, etc. for the rest of the student body to see.

Whether a student is interested in a pick-up game at the CPA, a hike up Roan Mountain or a video game competition in the Cave, they will be able to find it on Pano.

John Cowan, engineer and creator of Pano, said that his inspiration for the app came from his personal experiences in college. In his residence hall, there was a bulletin board where people would post all of their plans.

“There was anything from rock climbing, to people going on a hike, or getting together to nerd out over some video games,” Cowan said. “It became a way that students could get out of drawing off of the 25 people that lived on our floor, and then they could draw off of the hundreds of people in the building.”

With that, Cowan began the development of Pano, a way to make these plans more accessible and to give people access to the entire campus. Right now, the only major restriction that students can put into place is based on gender. This means that women have the option to create events for only women and men can do the same.

“(Pano) puts ETSU and Johnson City at your fingertips so that missing out is no longer an issue,” said Paige Davis, the director of ETSU’s

Strategic Media Club and a student who has worked to get Pano marketed on campus. She also added that the events posted on the app are secure and safe because only students with ETSU IDs have access to it.

When addressing safety concerns, Cowan elaborated that they are very committed to keeping the app as a safe environment.

“It’s totally restricted to the ETSU community,” Cowan said. “It’s just for the student body.”

He said that his goal for this app is that it will be the center of social life on campus.

“Pano wants to help students get to know each other by participating in events they otherwise would never know about,” Cowan said.

In early 2017, Pano will be launching an update that gives students the ability to publish posts based on groups. With this accessory, students will be able to restrict their postings to one specific group for their individual clubs or interest — such as a gaming group, an athletics group, or a Greek Life group — rather than having to scroll through every event being posted.

“College is a collection of experiences,” Cowan said, “and we want to help you find the ones that matter.”

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The East Tennessean is your source for everything ETSU. The Johnson City-based publication is assembled by ETSU students and printed by the Elizabethton Star every Monday and Thursday during the academic year. It is distributed to most university buildings and can be obtained for free from one of the publication’s many racks. All errors should be reported to Executive Editor Jessica Dunker at jdunker@etsu.edu or eteditor@etsu.edu.